Sunday, January 30, 2011

A Sunbean in a Winter's Day, 1910

"A little rule, a little sway,/A sunbeam in a winter's day,/Is all the proud and mighty have/Between the cradle and the grave." --Alexander Pope

An oddly tinted card with a melancholy message that actually is quite hopeful: Even the most powerful and ruthless people must come to an end. Interestingly, this couplet has been wrongly attributed to Pope. A Google search reveals this is an excerpt from the Welsh poet John Dyer's Grongar Hill, a work which has been compared to Pope's.

The flip side reveals something interesting going on; perhaps the clean-out of a house after someone's death, given the nature of the poem on the front.

Dear Mother, I don't think I will get home before Sunday or maybe Monday as we are not half through cleaning. The house is awful dirty and Genie is discourage[d] so will have to stay and keep her agoing and they are using the horses every day drawing ice so don't look for me until you see me. Hope every thing is all right there. Yours ever, H.M.V. (Thursday morning)